Bogus 3-minute-only parking tickets given at illegally altered curb
UPDATE: As of Wednesday morning, Palm Springs city workers have repainted the curb and replaced the stolen sign.
ORIGINAL STORY: Some parking spots in Palm Springs were illegally changed and people were getting parking tickets they didn’t deserve. Thanks to our investigation, the city will be fixing the problem.
Roman Ocelo has been cutting hair at Luigi’s Barbershop in Palm Springs for 16 years. A few nights ago he went out to dinner and parked his truck on the curb at the intersection of Tahquitz Canyon Way and Indian Canyon Drive next to the Thai Smile restaurant.
“When I came back I noticed there was a ticket on my windshield, and I was almost 100 percent sure an officer had made a mistake,” Ocelo said.
Ocelo’s intuition was right on. The curb had been illegally altered to show the area was a three-minute parking zone. The words ‘3 mins parking only” were handwritten with permanent marker on two spots on the curb.
On a post next to the parking spots were brackets that used to hold a parking sign. The sign itself was missing.
With the signage missing and the writing on the curb far from professional, I went into Thai Smile to see if workers there knew anything about it. The hostess told me the owner was in Thailand and the manager was out of the restaurant for a few hours. I left my card for him to call me back but he never did.
Officials with the city of Palm Springs told me someone had illegally changed the two parking spots. This was supposed to be a regular two-hour parking zone like the majority of parking on this street.
Because of our investigation, the city will be repainting the curb and replacing the stolen sign as soon as possible. Ocelo will not have to pay the $35 ticket. Parking enforcement isn’t run by the city. It’s contracted out to a company called Data Ticket Inc.
City officials said they will be working with the company to find out who was writing tickets for people parked legally against the curb.
If someone has gotten a ticket for parking more than three minutes at this spot there is a form the person can fill out to contest the ticket. You can also contact the city directly by talking to Lola Goetz, Revenue Recovery Specialist, at (760) 323-8256.
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